Gurinder Chadha on Blinded by the Light, gender parity at Sundance Film Festival, and directing a Marvel movie

Gurinder Chadha’s Blinded by the Light shined at the Sundance Film Festival and also bagged one of the biggest deals, selling to New Line for $15 million, according to a report by Variety. In an interview with the publication, the filmmaker recounted getting the rights to the Bruce Springsteen songs which have been weaved into the musical, and directing her own superhero movie one day. [caption id=“attachment_5997731” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still from Gurinder Chadha’s Blinded by the Light. Image via Twitter/@aliciamalone[/caption] The Bend it Like Beckham called the audience’s response “exciting” and said she was enjoying the highs especially because the film business can be brutal with its lows. Her film is based on a book by Sarfraz Manzoor, who is a big Springsteen fan. The legendary singer now recognises Manzoor because he is a regular at his shows and is perhaps the only Pakistani with an afro in the arena. Chadha recounted meeting Springsteen at a premiere with Sarfraz and seized the opportunity to tell him about the film she had been working on. Surprisingly, Springsteen had already read Manzoor’s book which made their job easier. The director also acknowledged that Sundance had almost achieved gender parity with its slate and credited the selectors for it. “I think a lot of that has to do with the Sundance selectors. They have gone out of their way: 43 percent of the films are directed by women. You have almost parity. If you have that industry standard everywhere, then you’ll have a lot more films made by women getting audiences, getting awards,” she told Variety. Interestingly, Chadha also showed interest in directing a Marvel film and confessed to really liking _Black Panther_. She added that superhero movies should be connected to the real world and that is something she does well, commenting on what is happening in society while bringing in the required emotion.